If it had been simply any Straight No Chaser show, Sunday’s concert at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown by the hit a cappella group still would have been a great performance: an hour and 40 minutes of voice and harmony – and humor.

But it wasn’t just any Straight No Chaser show. The two sold-out performances Sunday were a homecoming, and a farewell.

And that made the show even more special.

It was Straight No Chaser’s first visit to Symphony Hall, where one of its primary singers, Allentown native Jerome Collins, had performed as a 13-year-old with the Singing Boys of Pennsylvania. It also brought former Forks County resident Walter Chase back home.

And, as the final show in the group’s 2012 tour, it was the last performance of member Ryan Ahlwardt, who is leaving the group for a youth ministry. The latter of the two shows was liberally sprinkled with references to both.

Straight No Chaser's Jerome Collins, an Allentown native

“For Jerome Collins and I to conclude our tour here is not only convenient for our holiday travel, but couldn’t be more appropriate,” Chase (nee Shilanakas) told the crowd as Collins mugged behind him and someone yelled out “Walter!”

“Thanks, Shelly, how are you?” he deadpanned.

Symphony Hall also proved the perfect venue for Straight No Chaser: large enough for a crowd, but also intimate, with acoustics that supported the group's strengths.

Collins, especially, handled many of the lead vocals in a show that included 10 full songs and 10 medleys that mashed together 26 other songs.

After the group showed how it keeps it current by opening with a medley of fun.’s current radio hits “Some Nights” and “We Are Young” – good choices and well done; the crowd clapped along – Collins took the lead for the first time on a combo of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and “I Was Made to Love Her.”

Walter Chase, a former Forks Township resident

“Allentown, what’s up?” he yelled, to which he got a big cheer in response.

Collins also was the centerpiece of several other songs. With member Tyler Trepp (who also was great), he did a mix of Bill Withers’ “Use Me” and “Ain’t No Sunshine” that had him ending with a long, high note.

Late in the show, Collins was featured on two of the show’s best songs. A combo of Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison” (which was written by Elliot “Dr. Freeze” Strait, whose family lives in Allentown) and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” also had him doing Jackson’s dances – spinning, “moonwalking” and dropping to the stage for a full leg split.

And Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” had him “coaching” Ahlwardt on how to sing with soul. (Ahlwardt nailed it, by the way).

Chase, left, and Collins, right, with Ahlwardt between them

And Collins even carried Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” not only singing with a great voice, but entertaining with movement and mugging. The song was so good that the crowd cheered loudly at the end, and Collins took a deep bow.

As those songs demonstrated, Collins also was an integral part of the group’s comedy elements – of which there also was a good dose.

Chase also got a good amount of attention. The group sang Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” mixed with “Over The Rainbow” gathered around Chase him. He and Collins were front-and-center on Bruno Mars’ “Runaway Baby” (again, so entertaining the crowd clapped along).

Straight No Chaser opened the second part of its show (after intermission) with “Twelve Days of Christmas,” one of six holiday songs the group did and the YouTube sensation that five years ago made the group famous and got it a record contract.

Its gag interlude of “The Dreidel Song,” sung by Chase, was expanded as a neon menorah lowered from the ceiling. “Mr. Red Rover, Canary wants to give you a surprise,” Collins told him, referring to the mascots of their high schools – Easton and Allen, respectively. And, of course, when the song mashed into Toto’s “Africa,” Collins handled the lead.

And the group did “The Christmas Can-Can,” tagging it with “Walter Shilanakas” for Chase, who’s also Straight No Chaser’ musical director.

The holiday songs weren’t only handled by those two. “Carol of the Bells,” with the group in spotlights on a darkened stage, singing in a more traditional choral way, was chillingly good. A funny “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” with three other members singing in chipmunk voices, was funny.

But “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” which the group recorded with Cee Lo Green on his new album, also featured Collins. And he was in the spotlight for an uplifting combination of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Angels We Have Heard on High” – the classical training in his voice evident.

But his best – and the best of the night before the finale – was Collins with member Mike Luginbill on Coldplay’s “Fix You.” The song was chilling -- cathedral and ethereal -- and Collins nailed it.

The individual introductions at the end, as could be expected, brought heartfelt individual goodbyes to Ahlwardt. But Collins also used his to thank “friends, teachers and mentors … for helping me become something good in this world.”

The group later buried him in Silly String on the closing mash-up of Maroon 5’s “Move Like Jagger,” Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and LMFAO’s “Party Rocking Anthem” and “Sexy and I Know It.” It brought a standing ovation.

The group returned for an encore of The Tokens’ “Lion Sleeps Tonight” and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” that also featured Chase and Collins, and got a second standing ovation.

But it was a second encore that brought together all the best elements of the night, and of Straight No Chaser.

With the group singing unamplified as it did in its college-year founding at Indiana University, Collins took the lead on “O Holy Night.” Pushing his voice to the edge to be heard, it was pure and sweet – chilling and one of the best concert moments of the year.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.